How to Search for a Japanese Patent Prior Art

Locating or searching patent in Japanese is a very challenging and tricky task, and also costly, because of the complexity of JPO patent system, huge number of documents stored at JPO database, and language barrier. However, chances of uncovering pertinent prior art is quite high, because Japanese patent prior art is so difficult to find and costly that a patent holder of a foreign company often did not have a thorough JP search before or after filling the application in the normal novelty / patentability search process, nor the examiner at USPTO due to the limited resource, time, and budget. In other words, Japanese patent prior art is an untouched gold mine in term of prior art information.

In this section, we provide some tips, ideas and examples about Japanese patent search, including number system, validity, novelty, etc. using a few examples. If you have a specific project, we would be happy to send you a proposal and estimate together with some of our intellectual property services information.

• Japanese patent numbering system

Introduction about Japanese patent numbering system and how to locate a particular application and related documents.
• Find prior art in Japanese for navigation system / GPS

Examples of searching JP prior art for automotive navigation system and satellite navigation device.

• Searching Japan Patent and scientific Literature for a GPS Navigation System


• Search for a Lithographic Method of Semiconductors


Tips and case studies of searches relating to digital cameras:

• How to look for prior art for Digital Cameras


• Digital Cameras with unique parameter setting function


• Digital Cameras with image rotation during display


• More examples